Bacchus – Poole 2 – 2 Highcliffe

Highcliffe made the journey over for the return fixture and we were hoping for a better result.

Half the games had a braille board with Steve and John playing different people (can’t have them play each other all the time). Steve was against budding young player Josh and got off to a complicated start with a nice looking pawn advance. Josh found a lovely queen for rook sac that forced through a promotion with the end result being Steve was an exchange down. In a complicated position with lots of opportunities to frustrate a draw was agreed.

Board 2 was the first match for Brian. He had a lovely attack against John with all his pieces on the other side of the board and a swarm of pawns descending, however the lack of match practice showed and John only took one mistake to turn the match around and claim the win for Highcliffe.

Board 3 and 4 were our juniors, the first on loan from Purbeck for the Bacchus league. Playing against Dan he played very well and ended up a piece up. Unfortunately this piece was a knight in an ending with no pawns to assist and it ended a draw.

Bailey (not Steve) was against an experienced Mike. His king was packed into the corner, but this allowed the rook to go on the g-file and chase his queen away from a protecting pawn and into a trap. Without hesitation, and a crowd hoping he spots it, Bailey checked with the rook revealing a queen to snap up the unsuspecting Highcliffe queen. From there Bailey managed to close the match out for his first win and a satisfying drawn match.

2-2, well done team and thank you to Highcliffe for making the journey and and entertaining match. Some excellent experience, especially with a bottom 3 board with a combined previous experience of 3 games!

Tarik
January 9, 2024